Islam OnlineStrongly Islamist, generally supports the government of Sudan. Know the other side..

Al-Ahram WeeklyFrom the editor: "providing as honest and objective a look at contemporary Egyptian and Arab reality as possible -- as seen through Egyptian and Arab eyes."

Sudan - News and Analysis by Eric ReevesBy far the best independent analysis of the developing situation--and usually much more pessimistic than official accounts. Also usually proves to be more accurate.

The Passion of the Present (the essay)

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In Darfur, a region in western Sudan approximately the size of Texas, over a million people are threatened with torture and death at the hands of marauding militia and a complicit government. Genocide evokes not only the moral, but also, the legal responsibility of the world community. Under international agreement, a nation must intervene to stop a genocide when it is officially acknowledged.

"Officially" is the key word here. So far, no nation in the international community has "officially" acknowledged the truth: Sudan is a bleeding ground of genocide. In this void, the Sudanese government continues to act with brutal impunity.

Thankfully, there are individuals working
in human rights organizations who are watching - and witnessing - and organizing, in support of the victims in Darfur. These individuals represent,
for all of us, a personal capacity to bear witness to the passion
of the present; one candle lit against the darkness.

However, before one can light a candle,
someone has to strike a match:
a donation to any of the human rights organizations active in Sudan, contacting your government representative, local newspaper, radio and t.v. station. Our individual activism is essential for the candlepower of witness to overcome and extinguish the firepower of genocide.

This world has long endured wars that take lives. Let us be part of one that saves them.

About: The Passion of the Present site is a totally non-profit labor of love and hope - in peace. Thanks for joining the effort.

About this blog

Our name comes from an essay entitled "The Passion of the Present" that one of our grassroots founders wrote and circulated by email in March of 2004. The blog started at the Berkman Center at Harvard Law School.

The editors are semi-anonymous in order to keep the focus on Sudan. This site is a resource for a blog-based information community now numbering several hundred interlinked bloggers and sites. Visitors come from around the world. Daily traffic ranges from just under a thousand visitors, to more than eight thousand on days when news attention peaks.

Our technology cost for a public blog service, with no special discount, is still just $13.46 per month! Start a blog if you don't have one already!

President George W. Bush on Thursday defended his policy of not sending US troops to Darfur and denied that he was softening on "genocide" there because of counterterrorism cooperation with Khartoum.

"That's a preposterous claim. It's not even close to the truth," Bush told reporters ahead of a summit in Europe next week. "Ours is the nation that called this a genocide and we take this situation in Darfur very seriously."

As for sending US troops, "an effective strategy is to work with the AU -- African Union -- and use AU forces to help keep the warring parties apart while we continue to press the Sudanese government, as well as rebel groups, for a comprehensive settlement."

At last the political paralysis in the face of internal rebellion and immense external pressures seems to be coming to an end in Sudan. President Omar Bashir’s government has announced an end to the six-year state of emergency and the release of all political prisoners, the most prominent being his former ally and now most outspoken critic, Hassan Al-Turabi, who has been detained several times since two men fell out in 1999.

Emergency provisions will continue in Darfur and the Northeast of the country where the Beja community is in rebellion but yesterday’s events indicate that even a solution to these conflicts could be drawing close. The next important step will be the signing of a new constitution that will signal the creation of an interim government. This will for the first time include members of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) group. Last December the Bashir government inked a deal with Southern leaders bringing to an end a 21-year conflict between Khartoum and SPLA rebels which has cost over 1.5 million lives.

In return for limited autonomy and a share in central government, the breakaway rebellion has finally ceased and with it one of Africa’s seemingly most intractable and bloody conflicts. Too little credit however has been given to the Bashir administration for this statesman-like deal, in part because the achievement was very rapidly overshadowed by Darfur for which it appeared Khartoum had little answers.

All eyes will now be on how Bashir handles Hassan Al-Turabi and indeed whether room will be found for the released politician and his Popular National Congress (PNC) party within the interim government. The two men finally fell out when Turabi tried to limit presidential powers with a parliamentary bill.

That Bashir chose to release all political prisoners and end the emergency on the 16th anniversary of the military coup that brought him to power may possibly send confusing signals. Yesterday’s measures would seem to indicate that the administration has accepted that it can no longer face down opposition, rebellion and secession with main force. Instead it must be prepared to talk and compromise. The massive achievement of the peace deal with the Southern rebels is positive proof that the Bashir government does have the necessary flexibility and wisdom. Which is why its failure in Darfur and the slowly worsening conflict in the Northeast of the country are so puzzling.

The common denominator to all Sudan’s rebellions is that they are by minorities who believe they have been marginalized by Sudanese society. Bashir would be wise to move swiftly to the interim government and accept political pluralism, which could include the strident criticism of Turabi. By so doing he will disarm international criticism while giving his administration a powerful platform from which to apply the successful formula used in the South to the rebellions of Darfur and the Northeast. By continuing to embrace the diversity of Sudan, the president will be restoring its unity.

At the African Union summit next week, African leaders should put the protection of civilians in Darfur at the top of their agenda, Human Rights Watch said today [Friday]. Leaders of the pan-African organization's 53 member states will meet in Sirte, Libya on July 4-5. "The African Union deserves credit for leading the efforts to restore security to war-torn Darfur," said Georgette Gagnon, deputy Africa director at Human Rights Watch. "More African Union forces need to be deployed across Darfur to protect civilians and help reverse ethnic cleansing."

Today [Friday], the African Union will begin its second phase of deploying troops to Darfur. Plans are well underway to increase AU forces in Darfur from some 2,700 to 7,700 by the end of September.

Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa and Kenya are contributing the additional forces, including an estimated 4,000 troops and 1,000 civilian police. The European Union, NATO and the United Nations--along with countries including the United States, France, Canada and Britain--are providing the technical, financial and logistical support to deploy these AU forces.

"There is no time to waste," said Gagnon. "Violence and insecurity persists in Darfur, especially in areas where there are no African Union troops."

Human Rights Watch called on the African Union to ensure that its forces in Darfur are deployed speedily in many more villages and small towns throughout the region, which is roughly the size of France.

AU troops should robustly protect civilians and proactively patrol and secure the main roads for humanitarian, commercial and civilian traffic. These forces should also do what is necessary to establish a safe and secure environment that will allow for the safe and voluntary return of refugees and internally displaced persons.

Once the 7,700 AU forces are deployed, the African Union, NATO, the United Nations and other donors should move as quickly as possible to the next phase of deployment, which will boost the level of AU forces to 12,300 under current plans.

"The status quo in Darfur is unacceptable. The inability of two million people to return home guarantees ongoing instability and retribution," Gagnon said. "This current situation rewards the perpetrators of ethnic cleansing and war crimes."

Human Rights Watch called on the African Union, the United Nations, NATO, the European Union and other concerned members of the international community to continue their recently established partnership to provide protection and freedom of movement in Darfur. These efforts must ensure that two million displaced Darfurians can return home and, in a region where conflict has made 3.5 million people depend on food aid, can cultivate their land in safety.

Donors must continue to provide the needed logistics and financial assistance to the African Union Mission in Sudan. Human Rights Watch urged members of the African Union--particularly Nigeria, South Africa, Rwanda, Senegal and Kenya--to maintain a high level of troop and police deployment until the crisis in Darfur is over.

"Countries like Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa have shown leadership in contributing to the AU mission in Darfur," said Gagnon. "Other African countries should follow their example by sending troops, military observers and police."

A few minutes ago I received an email from Nick Lezin of Buzztone saying he is working on promoting Live 8. Buzztone, The Change Agency, is smart looking marketing firm with a perfect sounding pitch.

Nick says, on Saturday, Live 8 will become the largest interactive event the world has ever seen:

"Worldwide concerts featuring the biggest names in music-U2, Destiny's Child, Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, Tim McGraw, Madonna, Sting and more-along with one million spectators and millions of viewers. All coming together with one purpose-to make poverty history. You can check out all of your favorite performances, on-demand throughout the summer-available to everyone, only at AOL Music.com

Make sure to check it out and add your name to the live 8 petition. If you would like to help spread the word about this great cause, go to http://www.buzztone.com/live8 for a variety of Live 8 content that you can host on your blog or website. We have banners, blurbs about Live 8, and the official press release available."

If you are a blogger and can put something up, please send Nick [nick AT buzztone DOT com] a link so he can check it out. Thanks.

Note, a BBC news report June 23, 2005 says AOL which has exclusive rights to broadcast the Live 8 event on the internet, also licensed it to North American TV and radio stations. Also, the report says AOL will screen the five main concerts on the internet and make them available for download six weeks after the event.

Amnesty International called on the President of Sudan to keep his promise made today [Thursday] to release all political prisoners. Of 355 political detainees known to Amnesty International, only Shaikh Hassan al-Turabi, the founder of the Popular Congress, is known to have been released so far, after 15 months under house arrest in Khartoum without charge or trial. (See Amnesty International list of political detainees published on 30 June 2005 (AI index AFR 54/062/2005), at http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-sdn/index.)

Amnesty International believes that there are many more political detainees in Sudan than those named on the list. Families do not often know where detainees are being held. Prisoners are transferred from one place to another, while families must search for any information at all about their relative's whereabouts. There is no public registry of detainees that relatives can consult.

The organization called for immediate access to all detainees by lawyers and families, United Nations (UN) monitors and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). The organization said that only ten percent of the detainees on its list had ever been brought to trial.

Amnesty International also called on the government to lift emergency measures in all parts of Sudan which contravene human rights. Amnesty International is further calling for the abolition of Articles 31 and 33 of the National Security Forces Act; swift legal reforms to bring Sudan's detention procedures in line with international human rights standards; and for all places of detention to be registered and inspected by the Ministry of Justice.

Prisoners' statistics

Amnesty International's list shows that:

At least a third of detainees were arrested in Darfur, most of them held arbitrarily in connection with the conflict. Many are still detained in Darfur; others have been transferred to Khartoum. They include community leaders, critics of government policy and people -- including members of Arab groups -- seeking to engage in reconciliation. Most have been arrested on suspicion of sympathising with the Darfur armed groups, however only 26% have been charged or brought to trial.

More than 100 detainees arrested elsewhere, mostly from Darfur and Eastern Sudan, have been transferred to Khartoum. Among those believed to be detained in Khartoum are 18 supporters of the Beja Congress, arrested in Port Sudan or Kassala and transferred to Khartoum. Because of the distance and the difficulties of travel, most have had no access to their family. For most of the 69 Popular Congress members on the list, arrested during mass government round-ups in September 2004, even the nine months detention period without access to a judge allowed in Sudanese law has now expired. The government linked these arrests to a plot against the State, but few of those still detained have been brought to trial; many have not even been charged.

Some 106 named in the list were arrested in Soba Aradi squatter camp south of Khartoum, after clashes with the police that killed at least 14 policemen and possibly up to 50 residents. More than 100 others from Soba Aradi are believed to be detained. Some summary trials of those arrested in Soba Aradi have been held, where for the first time lawyers were able to meet the detainees who reported receiving daily beatings in police stations. Amnesty International is urging that these detainees be brought to fair trial on recognizable criminal charges or released, and that their reported torture be ended immediately.

Background

On 30 June 2005, the government reiterated its promise to end the state of emergency, but only in parts of the country, and to release political prisoners. On 24 June Amnesty International had sent a list of more than 300 political detainees to the Sudan government Human Rights Advisory Council, calling for their immediate release or fair trial.

The government also promised to release all those detained in connection with the conflict in Darfur, as agreed under the 9 November 2004 agreement reached between the government and the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and Justice and Equality Movement (JEM).

Months without access to the outside world

"Communication of the detained or imprisoned person with the outside world, and in particular his family or counsel, shall not be denied for more than a matter of days". [Principle 15 of the UN Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment]

Most political detainees have no access to the outside world. Lawyers are almost invariably denied access to them and families are often only allowed to see them once or twice a year on Muslim feast days. Sometimes families are not even able to find out where relatives is being held, raising concerns that they may have "disappeared" or fears they may have been secretly executed. Even lawyers used to work on political detainees and who know likely places of detentions are not able to find out their whereabouts; most relatives of detainees, who have no lawyer and do not know the system, are turned away from police stations or national security offices and suffer weeks or months of anguish, not knowing whether their detained relative is alive or dead. Relatives are usually not informed when a detainee is transferred from his place of arrest.

Adib Abdel Rahman Yusuf, released in April 2005 had spent four months in a secret detention centre near Kober Prison in Khartoum, known to detainees as "Abu Ghraib". He was systematically beaten and tied up, sometimes tied to windows or doors and kept without sleep. Part of the time he was held in solitary confinement, but later he was held with nine other detainees in a room measuring 4m x 4m. After this he spent two months in the mosquito-ridden Debek Prison, north of Khartoum, which is well known for its very poor conditions. He was then moved to the political section of Kober Prison, in Khartoum North, and held there for one month. He does not know why he was released. During the whole time he was in custody, he was never brought before a prosecutor or judge, and had no contact with his family.

Torture and deaths in custody

"No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" [Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)]

Detention of people incommunicado leads to a situation where beating and other forms of torture are often carried out with impunity. Students and members of marginalised groups, like the Nuba and people from Darfur, are most likely to be beaten and otherwise tortured after arrest. Over the past year at least four people have died in custody in circumstances where torture appears to have caused or contributed to their death. In no case has any member of the security forces been brought to court for this torture. Those known to have died in custody are:

Abdelrahman Mohamed Abdel Hadi, who died in custody on the day of his arrest by military intelligence in Mellit, Darfur, on 26 August 2004 -- reportedly as a result of severe injuries sustained as a result of torture.

Shamsaddin Idris, a Nuba student at al-Nilein University and Popular Congress activist, who died in custody one day after being arrested by the National Security in Omdurman on 10 September 2004.

Abdel Rahman Suleiman Adam, a Fellata from Darfur, who died on the day he was arrested, on 13 September 2004, during the mass arrests of suspected Popular Congress members.

Abdallah Daw al-Bait Ahmed, from the Bani Hussein group in Darfur, who was arrested on 24 May 2005 with hundreds of others by the police in Soba Aradi displaced settlement in Khartoum. His dead body, with marks of heavy beatings, was brought to Khartoum Hospital morgue on 8 June 2005. Three others of those arrested in Soba Aradi have allegedly died in custody.

The National Security Forces Act and Emergency Laws

"Anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be brought promptly before a judge" [ICCPR, Article 9(3)]

Even though the Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed on 9 January 2005, the State of Emergency Law, which limits freedom of expression and allows the security services to detain people indefinitely and ban or break up peaceful assemblies, remains in place throughout the whole country. Sudan has been under a quasi-permanent state of emergency since 1999, but has not taken steps to legally derogate from its obligations under Article 4 of the ICCPR. The state of emergency in Sudan contravenes the non-derogable provisions and 'elements' of the ICCPR it is bound to.

The National Security Forces Act (NFSA) which, over many years, has allowed large scale incommunicado arrests, has not yet been amended. Under Article 31 the national security forces can hold people in detention for up to nine months. Although detentions for longer than three days have to be referred to the Director of the National Security, and detentions for longer than 30 days should be limited to "indications, evidence or suspicion of [the detainee's] committing an offence against the state", in practice political detainees are normally held under the NSFA for months without any access to their families or lawyers. Article 33 gives the security immunity for their actions and blocks any complaint of torture [or] ill-treatment against them.

Sudan has ratified human rights instruments which state that detainees have the right to be brought "promptly" before a judge after arrest. Nine months detention without charge, without access to a judge or a lawyer is already a gross violation of human rights. However, even the nine months' period allowed in Sudanese law is frequently prolonged. Some 30 detainees on Amnesty International's lists, have been held for longer than nine months, illegally even under Sudanese law. Higher profile detainees have often been released – and then immediately rearrested - at the end of the nine months' detention period.

Jibril al-Nil, Nureddin Adam Ali, Ibrahim Mohammed Sultan and Ahmed Adam Bakhit, leading members of the Popular Congress party, actually appeared before a court which acquitted them of crimes against the state, only to be immediately rearrested as they walked out of the courtroom. Others, such as Hassaballah Khater Mursal and Mohammed Osman Ahmed, Popular Congress activists, or Yusuf Haroun Rahma, a student, and Ishaq Mohammed Adam, a farmer, both from Niyertiti in Darfur, appear to be simply lying forgotten in detention.

The leader of southern Sudan John Garang welcomed Khartoum-backed southern Sudanese militia groups back into the fold as the vast African nation prepares to start implementing a landmark January peace agreement.

The three-day talks, which opened Thursday and were organized by retired Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, are aimed at convincing militias to halt attacks on civilian targets, mostly in Upper Nile region, and at welcoming the militias into the peace deal, against which they have protested.

Garang, addressing delegates from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement and militia groups in Kenya, said it was imperative "to heal the wounds of the past, remove mistrust, build confidence, and restore fraternity and mutual respect among ourselves."

"Furthermore we believe that some of these differences are not real, but are either a result of different perception and conceptions of our situation or a simply created to advance some political agenda," Garang said.

Militia leaders Gabriel Tanginya and Paulino Matip, who both command heavily-armed militias blamed for abducting hundreds of civilians and imposing illegal taxes in Sudan's oil-rich Upper Nile region, were present at the talks.

Others expected to attend are Gordon Kong and Ismael Konyi -- from the Upper Nile region -- as well as Abdalla Ayii from Bahr El-Ghazal region.

The militia leaders, who in April boycotted a key regional conference in Kenya that was aimed at promoting post-war reconciliation between the south's fractious factions, demanded a separate meeting with Garang.

They have in the past termed Garang as dictatorial and insensitive.

"Every Sudanese must get involved in the culture of peace building in order to realize peace dividend," said Moi, who since his retirement in December 2002, has taken up the role of a regional peacemaker.

"I encourage you to turn this meeting into an opportunity to share your thoughts and experience and to exercise flexibility in the spirit of forgiveness as true daughters and sons of the south," he said.

Under a peace agreement signed in Kenya in January between the Khartoum government and SPLM/A, all the militia groups operating in southern Sudan would have been incorporated in the peace agreement before July 9 when the implementation of the peace deal starts.

But the militia chiefs have said the deal was incomplete in their absence.

Sudan watchers have repeatedly warned that the absence of the militia chiefs could hamper the effective implementation of the deal and restoration of stability in southern Sudan when Garang becomes the Sudan's Vice President, in accordance with the peace deal.

The war, which erupted in 1983, in southern Sudan claimed at least 1.5 million lives and displaced more than four million others.

Matip's Southern Sudan Defence Forces, in a statement, accused Garang had played part in the deteroriation of ties between SPLM/A and Garand in southern Sudan.

"Continuous violent attitude of the SPLM under the leadership of Dr. John Garang has produced permanent distrust among the people of southern Sudan Sudan," it said.

Commenting of the conflicts in Sudan's western region of Darfur and eastern Sudan, Garang said: "We are determined to have peace all over the Sudan, we want peace in Darfur, we want peace in eastern Sudan and want the LRA (Uganda's insurgents Lord's Resistance Army) out of southern Sudan and we want a comprehensive peace so that we are able to development in our country," he added.

The Darfur conflict, which erupted in February, 2003, has claimed between 180,000 and 300,000 lives, with some 2.4 million civilians displaced from their homes, while an additional 200,000 have fled into neighbouring Chad.

While fighting between rebel Eastern Front and Khartoum troops in eastern Sudan erupted last week, with rebels accusing the Sudanese government is trying to hide casualties from alleged bombing of civilian targets.

The chairman of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A), John Garang, appealed on Thursday to all militias operating in southern Sudan to put aside their differences and reconcile.

"Maj Gen Gordon Kong and Maj Gen Paulino Matip Nhial [leaders of the government-aligned South Sudan Defence Force (SSDF)], I welcome you in the spirit of forgiveness and peace and as brothers," Garang told a conference of southern Sudanese armed groups in Nairobi, Kenya.

Thursday's conference was part of an ongoing series of meetings on south-south dialogue. Garang focused on the SPLM/A's vision for stability in the region and security arrangements for the upcoming transitional government period.

Under the provisions of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), signed between the Sudanese government and the SPLM/A on 9 January, all armed groups and militias in the south will either be integrated into the Sudanese armed forces or into the SPLM/A.

"I want to assure other armed groups who will decide to join the SPLA that they'll be treated the same way as other armed groups who joined the SPLA in the past," Garang said. "Your rightful place is in the south, you belong in the south."

Sudanese civil-society organisations, church groups and 11 political parties attended the previous dialogue in April, which developed a consensus on issues ranging from security, democracy and good governance to human rights, gender equality and economic development.

Chaired by former Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi, Thursday's conference was intended to bring together more than 20 armed groups from south Sudan who had been absent from the previous conference; some of these control oil-rich areas in the southern state of Upper Nile.

Participants said disagreements among southern Sudanese leaders had, in the past, led to the creation of many splinter groups, several of them supported by the Khartoum government. Observers feared that once Sudanese government troops withdrew from their southern positions in August, militias could try to fill the gap.

"I consider this a momentous occasion, key to the implementation of the peace agreement," Moi told the participants. "It is a demonstration of your honesty and your courage to be part of this historical chapter in the history of your country."

"When you are involved in this fighting, you have to ask yourself: what am I fighting for," Moi added. He stressed that war should not be allowed to continue.

In a statement read for him, Maj Gen Matip said: "Our presence here is to prove our political and military dedication to the CPA and the socio-cultural, political, military and security stability of our beloved country the Sudan."

He noted that he was eager to maintain tranquillity in the Sudanese nation, and expressed his readiness to enter into discussions for the sake of a peaceful southern Sudan.

"The SSDF demands its rightful place in the governance of southern Sudan, as well as within the general governance of the country," he said, and added that the SPLA and the SSDF should "equitably form the high command of the Southern Sudan Armed Forces".

Garang said the conference was not a negotiation, but rather a dialogue to heal wounds, solve differences from the past, build trust, and "put our house in order".

The CPA, he added, provided a fair framework for equitable governance, which would lead to the reconstitution and devolution of power in Sudan.

Included in the CPA were provisions for pulling Sudanese government troops out of the south, self-determination, wealth-sharing and religious freedom.

A transition period of six years - after which south Sudan's people would decide in a referendum whether or not to break away from the rest of Sudan - was also set out in the agreement.

"It is essential to get all the militias on board, it is crucial for the implementation of the CPA," Kent Degerfelt, head of delegation of the European Commission in Sudan, told IRIN.

"These are the people who actually have the guns in their hand. They should stop fighting, that's what it is all about," he added.

Garang said the SPLM/A wanted peace in southern Sudan through the CPA, as well as peace in the western region of Darfur and eastern Sudan. It also wanted the Ugandan rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), out of the country in order to achieve sustainable peace.

The LRA has fought the Ugandan government for 19 years, a brutal conflict that has displaced an estimated 1.6 million people. Some 20,000 children have been abducted for use as fighters, porters and sex slaves.

"In the south, we also want to solve the differences with the other armed groups, so that there will be no fighting anywhere in the country," he said.

The head of an eastern Sudan rebel group said Thursday the Sudanese government is trying to hide casualties from alleged bombing of civilian targets last week that were aimed at halting an advance by his fighters.

Musa Mohamed Ahmed, chief of the Eastern Front, also said that his forces are ready to defend themselves from counter-attacks by Khartoum, which he earlier alleged had resorted to aerial bombing to halt a rebel offensive.

He said the air force had destroyed four villages and a main bridge in the in the remote Barka Valley in eastern Red Sea state and caused a large but unknown number of civilian casualties.

Ahmed told reporters in the Eritrean capital that the number of dead and injured was impossible to determine because the Sudanese authorities were attempting to keep the figure secret.

"We are doing our best to collect this information," he said. "Most casualties are in government-supervised hospitals and nobody is allowed to enter. The government tries to prevent the news coming out."

Khartoum has denied staging air attacks, and Ahmed, in Eritrea for a meeting of Sudan's largest opposition group, the National Democratic Alliance, said the fighting had now stopped.

He said he had been personally supervising the fighting but had not seen the damage caused by the bombs, which he had been told destroyed the bridge between Tokar and Garora on the Barka river, and the villages of Krimbit, Dolabyai, Igayeb and Odwan.

His claims could not be independently confirmed.

Ahmed said the Eastern Front had released "many" captured Sudanese soldiers but was still holding 19 in a "liberated area" where they are being treated as "prisoners of war."

Ahmed added that if the rebels were ready to fight back if Khartoum decides to try to repel Eastern Front forces from territory they had gained south of Port Sudan.

Fighting broke out earlier this month in Red Sea state and has sparked an escalating war of words between Eritrea and Sudan, which accuses Asmara of supporting the rebels militarily.

On Wednesday, Khartoum warned of an "explosion" on the border if Eritrea, which hosts offices of the Eastern Front and other Sudanese rebel groups, continued its backing.

Meanwhile, Asmara renewed its denials of military support for the rebels but at the same time accused Khartoum of committing "horrendous crimes" and "atrocities" in the troubled western Darfur region and the east.

Throughout Sudan, thousands of people, displaced for as many as 21 years by civil war, are beginning to return to their decimated communities in the southern part of the country. The growing influx was triggered by a long-awaited peace agreement that was signed in January, 2005.

In Bahr el Ghazal, a region which saw some of the longest and harshest fighting in the war, uprooted families are traveling for days and risking the threat of landmines to come home to their shattered villages.

The IRC’s Amy Keith traveled to western Bahr el Ghazal in May and found villages in complete decay. “Houses and farms are destroyed and reclaimed by the jungle, water pumps are broken and health clinics and schools have been abandoned or demolished.” She says returnees are moving back into their roofless homes, living in plastic sheet tents on the grounds of old homes, or moving into the ruins of buildings.

In war-affected villages across southern Sudan, the IRC is helping such communities rebuild, including the Western Bahr el Ghazal village of Deim Zubair, where the IRC has taken the lead in organizing relief efforts.

“Thousands of refugees have flooded into this desolate village from camps in other parts of Sudan and the Central African Republic,” says Keith. “Our teams are coordinating the distribution of food, plastic sheeting for shelter, cooking utensils, buckets, jerry cans and clothes. We’re also rehabilitating pumps in order to restore the water supply, while partner groups are constructing latrines and providing medical care.”

However, with humanitarian aid resources extremely limited, Keith says thousands of other towns and villages have yet to be assisted. “We suspect that many returnees are going to remain in places like Deim Zubair until help is available in their home villages.”

Active in Sudan for more than 20 years, the IRC continues to provide relief, recovery and development programs in other regions. In the capital Khartoum, we support pre-school programs for children and income-generation activities for mothers in four displacement camps. In the Nuba Mountains, the IRC helps farmers restore their livelihoods, while extensive water and sanitation assistance is provided in Upper Nile and Red Sea States. Our primary health care training schools graduate dozens of health care workers annually in the southern towns of Billing and Ganyliel.

Meanwhile, farther west in Sudan’s Darfur region, the crisis continues to deteriorate, with more than 300,000 lives lost and 2.4 million people displaced. The IRC is steadily increasing its vital assistance to nearly 880,000 Sudanese in North, South and West Darfur.

Nigeria has approved the deployment of more than 2,000 troops in three battalions for peacekeeping and peace enforcement duties in Sudan's war-torn region of Darfur, a defense spokesman said June 30.

"The first battalion -- some 700 soldiers -- will leave for Darfur tomorrow. They are to be airlifted from Kaduna," Brigadier General Ganiyi Adewale told Agence France-Presse.

He said Nigeria's defense chief General Alex Ogomudia would address the soldiers on the need to be "good ambassadors" of their country before leaving for the war-wracked region.

"This is ... in line with the request of the United Nations and African Union from countries to send more troops to the region," he said.

He said west African regional powerhouse Nigeria already had three companies of troops in Darfur as part of the AU peacekeeping force.

The AU now has 3,320 troops in Dafur, including 450 observers and 815 police officers. The number is set to double by the end of September, and ultimately reach 12,000 soldiers.

The conflict in Darfur between the Sudanese government and two main rebel groups has claimed between 180,000 and 300,000 lives, with some 2.4 million civilians displaced from their homes, while an additional 200,000 have fled into neighboring Chad.

A ceasefire, concluded in April last year, has never been respected.

AU-mediated talks to end the 28-month-old civil war began in the Nigerian capital in August last year but negotiations between the parties have suffered because of mutal accusations of truce violations.

The latest round of talks which resumed on June 10 after a six-month break has made little progress.

Sudan's justice minister on Thursday rejected calls for the extradition of Darfur war crimes suspects to the International Criminal Court, after the court's prosecutor said key perpetrators may not face justice at home.

Darfur is the first case the U.N. Security Council has referred to the ICC in The Hague, but Sudan has said it will hold its own trials and will not allow any extraditions.

Justice Minister Ali Mohamed Osman Yassin said 10 suspects were already on trial in southern Darfur for crimes including rape.

"Now the court is starting its job ... We have started judicial proceedings and the hearings have started," Yassin told BBC radio.

"We are very transparent, we are cooperative, and we would like to use all the rational logic to convince the ICC that this matter can be retained locally."

ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo, appearing before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, said he did not think Sudanese courts would put on trial those most responsible for atrocities, who legal analysts say may include top government officials.

An estimated 180,000 people have died from fighting, hunger and disease in Darfur, in western Sudan, and 2 million have fled their homes to escape killings and rape during more than two years of conflict which Washington has called genocide.